Changes

*''Japanese'': [[新井]]白石 ''(Arai Hakuseki)''

*''Japanese'': [[新井]]白石 ''(Arai Hakuseki)''

Arai Hakuseki was a [[Confucianism|Confucian scholar]] and influential shogunal advisor of the [[Genroku period]] (late 17th to early 18th centuries). He was chief advisor under [[Tokugawa Ienobu]], but retired when Ienobu was succeeded as shogun by [[Tokugawa Yoshimune]].

Arai Hakuseki was a [[Confucianism|Confucian scholar]] and influential shogunal advisor of the early 1700s. Though he never held an official position within the [[Tokugawa shogunate]], he was granted higher rank and status than any other Confucian scholar of the entire [[Edo period]], outside of members of the [[Hayashi family]], and was permitted to exercise considerable influence within his role as advisor and tutor to the shogun. Hakuseki served as chief advisor to [[Tokugawa Ienobu]] (r. [[1709]]-[[1712]]), but lost his influential position when Ienobu's successor [[Tokugawa Ietsugu]] died in [[1716]] and was succeeded as shogun by [[Tokugawa Yoshimune]].

==Life & Career==

==Life & Career==

He was the grandson of [[Arai Kageyu]] (d. [[1609]]); his father was ''[[metsuke]]'' [[Arai Masanari]] ([[1601]]-[[1682]]), and his mother, a daughter of the [[Fujiwara clan]] by the surname Sakai ([[1617]]-[[1678]]).

He was the grandson of [[Arai Kageyu]] (d. [[1609]]); his father was ''[[metsuke]]'' and [[Tsuchiya clan]] retainer [[Arai Masanari]] ([[1601]]-[[1682]]), and his mother, a daughter of the [[Fujiwara clan]] by the surname Sakai ([[1617]]-[[1678]]). Named Kinmi by his parents, he took on the scholarly pseudonym Hakuseki as an adult.

Hakuseki studied [[Zhu Xi]]-style [[Neo-Confucianism]] under [[Kinoshita Jun'an]].

A copy of [[Nakae Toju|Nakae Tôjû's]] book ''Okina mondô'' ("Discussion with an Old Man") is said to have been the key inspiration for sparking Kinmi's interest in [[Neo-Confucianism]] when he was around 17 years of age. Finding the subject compelling, he began studying [[Zhu Xi]]-style Neo-Confucianism more extensively.

Hakuseki entered the service of the [[Hotta clan]] in [[1682]], at the age of 26, and later married a daughter of [[Asakura Nagaharu]], another Hotta retainer. His first daughter, Shizu, was born in [[1687]], but died in infancy, possibly at birth. His second daughter, Kiyo, was born in [[1689]]. Hakuseki's first son, [[Arai Akinori]], was born in [[1691]]; Hakuseki resigned from his service to the Hotta earlier that year,<ref>Ackroyd, 283n82.</ref> and moved to a farm at Honjô, in [[Edo]], near the banks of the [[Sumidagawa]].<ref>Ackroyd, 284n86.</ref> Beginning in [[1693]], he served as an advisor to Tokugawa Tsunatoyo, lord of [[Kofu han|Kôfu han]], remaining his advisor as Tsunatoyo became Shogun Tokugawa Ienobu in [[1709]].

Around the age of 21, the young Hakuseki and his father were expelled from their home [[han|domain]] as the result of some political dispute or scandal. Stripped of the support of their former lords, he then devoted himself all the more deeply to his studies, partially perhaps in the hope of attracting another lord to take him into his service.

Hakuseki was granted the [[court rank]] of Lower Junior Fifth Rank in 1709,<ref>Kate Wildman Nakai, ''Shogunal Politics: Arai Hakuseki and the Premises of Tokugawa Rule'', Harvard East Asian Monographs (1988), 200.</ref> and was named ''Chikugo-no-kami'' in 1711.

 

Hakuseki was granted ''[[hatamoto]]'' status, a [[stipend]] of one thousand ''[[koku]]''', and the [[court rank]] of Lower Junior Fifth Rank in 1709,<ref>Kate Wildman Nakai, ''Shogunal Politics: Arai Hakuseki and the Premises of Tokugawa Rule'', Harvard East Asian Monographs (1988), 200.</ref> and was named ''Chikugo-no-kami'' in 1711.

==Policies==

==Policies==

Hakuseki was particularly influential in effecting a shift in [[Tokugawa shogunate|shogunate]] attitudes and policies regarding foreign relations, articulating the conceptual meaning and discursive value for the shogunate's legitimacy of conceptualizing foreign relations with [[Joseon Dynasty]] Korea and the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] in terms of a [[tribute|tributary]] relationship patterned after the [[Sinocentric world order|Sinocentric worldview]]. In much of his writings and policy advice, he emphasized shogunal authority over the authority or autonomy of the ''daimyô'', and similarly avoided rhetoric of Imperial authority, though without overtly opposing or denying it.<ref>[[Mark Ravina]], ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan'', Stanford University Press (1999), 25, 42.</ref>

Hakuseki was particularly influential in effecting a shift in [[Tokugawa shogunate|shogunate]] attitudes and policies regarding foreign relations, articulating the conceptual meaning and discursive value for the shogunate's legitimacy of conceptualizing foreign relations with [[Joseon Dynasty]] Korea and the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] in terms of a [[tribute|tributary]] relationship patterned after the [[Sinocentric world order|Sinocentric worldview]]. In much of his writings and policy advice, he emphasized shogunal authority over the authority or autonomy of the ''daimyô'', and similarly avoided rhetoric of Imperial authority, though without overtly opposing or denying it.<ref>[[Mark Ravina]], ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan'', Stanford University Press (1999), 25, 42.</ref>

==References==

==References==

*Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.), ''Told Round a Brushwood Fire'', University of Tokyo Press (1979), 279-308.

*Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.), ''Told Round a Brushwood Fire'', University of Tokyo Press (1979), 279-308.

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[[Category:Edo Period]]

[[Category:Edo Period]]

[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]

[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]